Arsene Wenger took another step towards becoming the most successful manager in FA Cup annals on Saturday and hailed Arsenal’s “special solidarity” in fighting back to record a 3-1 third-round win over Sunderland.
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While Wenger is content with the schedule, Black Cats boss Sam Allardyce again hit out over the number of games his side are being forced to play.
Jeremain Lens put the visitors ahead after a mix-up between Kieran Gibbs and Laurent Koscielny but Joel Campbell levelled before the break before second-half strikes from Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud saw the holders through. “Sometimes I felt in the last 20 minutes, every time he went forward, he created a chance on goal”, Wenger said of Bellerin.
Along with the familiar names Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger also gave a start to 19-year-old winger Alex Iwobi and the Nigerian did not look out of place among his far more experienced teammates.
“There is a huge amount of talk in the football world about him, there is no way I could have left him at Preston without bringing him back and seeing if he can do it for us”.
“He became stronger and stronger”.
Many Premier League clubs made several alterations for their respective FA Cup third-round ties, but Wenger insists you can not be considered a “big club” if you are not willing to try and win every tournament you enter.
“The legs are fine and we have shown that we have very good players on the bench also and the rotation helps us get good results. You can’t say “we move out of a cup competition, a national cup”.
His strugglers face a trip to Swansea on Wednesday night before an early Saturday afternoon kick-off at Tottenham on Saturday.
– Jonathan Lyne (@johnnylyne)Liked how Iwobi handled himself yesterday, a good example of how a youngster should play for the first team.
“There were lots of positives for us”, said Allardyce.
“It’s easier to keep everybody on board because you have always the next competition, and everybody thinks I have a chance to play”.
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“I am interested in the welfare of players, which is at great risk at this stage of the season and you have seen it with the amount of injuries that have occurred at this time”.
